“Ding, ding, ding,” Elvira suddenly, and weirdly, said.

And more weird, not a second later Axl’s phone sounded.

He took the call.

But I looked to where Elvira was looking.

Ryn’s laptop.

The diagnostics were no longer running.

“Yeah,” Axl said. “Yeah.” Pause. “You got a location?” Listening. “Leave it to us. Thanks, Brody.” He disconnected and announced to all, “She’s been hacked.”

“Fuck,” Boone clipped.

“I’m so sorry, Hattie,” Ryn said.

“Why?” I asked. “You didn’t stalk me.”

“Brody doesn’t have a location yet,” Axl kept going. “We need to get on that.”

“Dude’s name is Laszlo Kovack and I know where he works and where he lives,” Boone supplied.

Both Boone and Axl looked to Hawk.

“Go,” he bit out.

Boone turned to Ryn and Axl looked down at me.

“You stay here until Sly gets here or you hear from me, okay?”

I nodded.

He bent in and kissed me quickly.

Then he and Boone took off, both of them with their phones to their ears.

I thought about Laszlo Kovack.

And what I thought was, I’d like to have a conversation with him about why he played this the way he did.

Not that I wanted him to play with Boone and Ryn.

Just that …I didn’t get it.

“Did he like you?” I asked Ryn.

“Well, we connected, so he was attracted to me,” Ryn replied. “But for me, he was definitely a one and done.”

“I think he didn’t want to be a one and done,” I surmised.

“Just, you know,” Elivra began, “takin’ up the slack while Hawk here tamps down his inclination to chase up Axe and Boone so he can work out his current murderous tendencies, this Kovack guy thought you’d share with her.” She tipped her head to Ryn. “My guess, this started before you and Axe got together?”

I nodded.

“So … yeah,” Elvira said in conclusion.

“But then he knew I was with Axl,” I pointed out.

Elvira shrugged. “That, I don’t get. Unless he got into it and found he was getting off on it and didn’t feel like quitting.”

It was more than that.

I felt it.

But I focused on Ryn. “You okay?”

“Yeah.”

She didn’t sound convincing.

“I’m sorry that happened to you.”

“No big deal, it’s over. I’m sorry it leaked to you.”

“That isn’t on you.”

She nodded.

“He bi?” Elvira broke into our back-and-forth to ask Ryn.

“No clue,” Ryn answered.

“He’s bi,” Elvira said.

“And?” I asked.

“And, have you seen Axl?” she asked back. “Or Boone?”

Well then.

There you go.

“He wanted him,” I surmised. “He wanted him. He wanted you. He wanted Ryn. Maybe even wanted Boone. Who knows? That video,” she tipped her head to my laptop, “says ‘Come and play.’ It does not say, ‘Come and play, and after, I’m gonna wear your skin.’ ”

Yeah, just like I thought.

Totally no Silence of the Lambs vibes.

Totally an invitation.

But … who does that?

And it wasn’t just rule-breaking BDSM guy stuff.

I just couldn’t shake that it was …off.

“Boone did not share the details of his ‘conversation’ with Laszlo, but I’m thinking he left it without question that he was not down to play,” Ryn noted.

“This guy doesn’t play by the rules, right?”

“Right,” Ryn said miserably.

“Ryn, honey, it isn’t your fault,” I reiterated.

“It still sucks. I mean, what a dick,” she replied.

“It does suck, but whatever. They’ll get him so it’s almost all over.” It was a lame attempt to reassure her, but it was all I had.

“They’ll get him,” Hawk rumbled.

I jumped, not believing I kinda forgot he was standing there.

Hawk then turned and prowled down the row, and at the end, he jogged up to his office like he had energy he needed to expend.

Hostile energy.

Eek!

“So, you know, you gotta hook a girl up with the shops you go to,” Elvira said to Ryn. “I mean, marriage is da bomb, but you gotta keep things in the marital bed hopping, you feel me?”

Ryn lost some of her gloom and semi-smiled. “I can totally hook you up.”

“Porn too. Malik won’t do all boys, but a girl can take her laptop to a bubble bath and get herself in the mood before she pounces on her man,” Elvira declared.

Ryn’s smile strengthened. “Totally.”

Elvira’s voice changed abruptly, and it did this in totality.

“You are never responsible for a violation. You will almost always feel like you are, but it is not yours to take on. It is never yours to take on. Do you get me?”

“I get you,” Ryn said softly.

Elvira looked down at me. “Do you get me?”

“I get you,” I repeated Ryn’s words.

“Right, this pretty much shouts time for a cosmo. Who wants one?”

A cosmo?

As in, the drink?

“Vira, it’s not even ten in the morning,” Ryn noted.

Yes, the drink.

“And?” Elvira demanded.

Neither Ryn nor I had the answer to that.

Though I had another note.

“Bars aren’t open yet.”

“You think, I work with these boys, I don’t have a setup in my office?” she asked.

Considering this was a place of business, a kickass one, but still a place of business, I wouldn’t have thought that, no.

Though, thinking on it then, if I had to work with an office full of hot guys, I’d have a drawer of goodies to help me get through.

“Ten or not, it’s girl time,” Ryn said, grabbing my arm and pulling me up.

I hadn’t even had breakfast.

Still.

“I’m in,” I said.

We moved down the row with Elvira declaring (to me), “Girl, you miss my boards again, I’m banning you for life.”